Your Wednesday Evening Briefing: Joe Biden, New York Mets, Paul Ryan

1. The indecision is over. “I believe we’re out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” Joe Biden announced, sparing the Democratic Party a possible schism. But, the vice president added, “I will not be silent,” a promise he immediately fulfilled with more than 10 minutes of comments that included veiled jibes at the Democratic presidential front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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CreditEsam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters

2. Any celebratory mood in Mrs. Clinton’s campaign was shadowed by the prospect of her long-awaited public testimony on Thursday before the House Benghazi panel. The leader of the panel, Trey Gowdy, is paying a political price for what even some fellow Republicans say is a partisan effort to damage her presidential chances.

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CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

3. House Republicans remained embroiled in the struggle to find leadership. But a vote by a caucus of conservative House members has effectively cleared the way for Paul D. Ryan to become speaker.

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4. The New York Mets reached their fifth World Series on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, completing a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series with an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series 7-1. But the Royals are still leading the best-of-seven series 3-2.

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5. So Einstein appears to have been wrong about something big, but you need more than a passing knowledge of quantum physics to really get what. This is what our science writer distilled from a Dutch study: There is now strong evidence that particles far apart can instantaneously affect each other. The lead physicist called it confirmation of what Einstein dismissed as “spooky action at distance.”

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CreditUniversal Pictures

6. And in faux science news, Marty McFly saved the past today, back in 1989. The cinematic vision of Oct. 21, 2015, in “Back to the Future, Part II” included a few inventions we’re still waiting for — the drone dog walker, for instance, and a real hoverboard. (We remain dubious about the flying cars and the fashion statements.)

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CreditEmilio Naranjo/European Pressphoto Agency

7. Quick quiz: What’s the hottest year on record? In 2014, it was 2014. This year, it appears to be this year. Scientists discussing the new figures noted a strong El Niño weather pattern, but said that was an overlay on warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

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CreditPool photo by Alexei Druzhinin

8. Russia continued to reshape the Syrian civil war, following its military intervention with a burst of diplomatic maneuvering. Vladimir Putin summoned the Syrian president to Moscow to put a political settlement back on the table, and Russia’s foreign ministry said Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian, Turkish and Saudi counterparts would discuss options in Vienna on Friday.

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CreditAmir Cohen/Reuters

9. Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as “absurd” widespread denunciations of his comments suggesting that a Palestinian inspired the Holocaust. The Israeli prime minister said he had not meant to absolve Hitler by saying that the grand mufti of Jerusalem had advised him to “burn” Jews rather than expel them from Germany, but to show how long Palestinians had “aspired to systematic incitement to exterminate the Jews.”

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CreditNir Elias/Reuters

10. The comments complicate international efforts to halt spiraling violence as Palestinians attacks Israelis with knives, guns and vehicles and Israeli security forces kill suspected assailants and others. The U.N. secretary general was in the Mideast to try to calm tensions, and Mr. Netanyahu is to meet Mr. Kerry on Thursday in Berlin.

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CreditMark Lennihan/Associated Press

11. Ferrari made a profitable debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares under the ticker symbol RACE closed at $55, putting the market value of the supercar maker at about $10.4 billion.